If I do have some success, I'd like to enjoy it, for heaven's sake! What is the point of having it otherwise?

The ultimate of being successful is the luxury of giving yourself the time to do what you want to do.

Art is the only thing you cannot punch a button for. You must do it the old-fashioned way. Stay up and really burn the midnight oil. There are no compromises.

I am here and you will know that I am the best and will hear me. The color of my skin or the kink of my hair or the spread of my mouth has nothing to do with what you are listening to.

Accomplishments have no color.

Who I am is the best I can be.

I have never given all of myself, even vocally, to anyone. I was taught to sing on your interest, not your capital.

Be black, shine, aim high.

If you're not feeling good about you, what you're wearing outside doesn't mean a thing.

You should always know when you're shifting gears in life. You should leave your era - it should never leave you.

For a long time the only time I felt beautiful-in the sense of being complete as a woman, as a human being, and even female-was when I was singing.

Warriors want a worthy opponent. There is no redress in fighting the pathetic.

Give people plenty and security, and they will fall into spiritual torpor.

The Olivet Discourse is not about the Second Coming of Christ. It is a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

I think the lesson that I learnt very early on was to listen to people you work with, because you're all in it together.

Americans have a warrior's mentality, most of them. That's how this society was built. The fact that you own a gun and shoot to defend your life is a very American way of thinking.

There's not a European country the Jews haven't been thrown out of. When it happens that many times, it's not just persecution. THERE'S NO SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE.

It was good to be a kid because I did not realise all the things that came with the success. Going to the Games, I was asked what I expected to do.

The moment I started treating my social anxiety disorder, I started feeling better.

I don't know the American photographers as well, but I admit I love Ansel Adams. His landscapes are so crisp.

I have thought some of Nature's journeymen had made men and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.